Happy Birthday Suzy!

Yaaaay, it's party time!!! There was no possible way that we could let our leader's birthday go by unnoticed, so Justine took lead this year in kicking our butts into whipping up some serious fun for Suzy's birthday. WOOHOO!

Of course, YOU get the presents! Be sure to comment on each of our blogs AND wish Suzy a 'happy birthday' by February 22nd for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the So Suzy Stamps shop. Winner will be announced February 23rd on the So Suzy Stamps blog!

So I came across the Spellbinders die I picked up while shopping with Suzy and Momma Denise last summer again and knew I had to use it for Suzy's card. It was going to be awesome - whether it was going to be an awesome card or an awesomely hot mess was yet to be determined. LOL In the end it did turn out the way I wanted, but I can hear my dear Mary now telling me how loca I am for doing this...

...but it turned out AWESOME! A shaker card. With sprinkles. And by sprinkles I mean glitter, but it really does look like sprinkles, right? Just don't eat them.

And oh does it shake! Amazingly enough, it also does not leak the glitter...I was worried for a bit and might have held it over the garbage can just in case before I gave it a test shake. But behold the power of stick-it adhesive and five layers of cardstock!

To not detract from all the glitter, I added some Skittles for sprinkles to my favorite cupcake, which is currently part of the Retirement Sale and makes me very sad. It also means that it's 25% off and you have no good reason not to buy it.

I kept the inside a little more simply, but just as poignant:

Happy Birthday, Suzy! May your Coke be cold, the temperature be warm, and the cupcakes be fresh. Love ya!

Hop lineup:

So Suzy Stamps blog with Chris

Monica

Kymona

Martha

Jennifer <<< you are here!

Justine

Be sure to check out our Blog Hop with the Die-Namites team as well!

Stamps used:
Happiness is...
Sprinkles
Medium Cupcake Swirl (retiring)
Ice Cream Sprinkles
Happy Birthday Fancy

Happy Crafting!

I'm also linking up to - Simon Says Stamp Shake It Up challenge and the DoubleClick Skittles Challenge #42, Birthday

So Suzy's Surprise Birthday Bash!

Good morning everyone! Welcome to my stop on our super-fun, super-sneaky, surprise birthday hop for Suzanne of So Suzy Stamps! You should be arriving here from Steph's pretty blog - if you just stumbled into the fun by accident, be sure to head over to the So Suzy Stamps blog so you can hop on the party train!

And what would a party be without prizes?? Be sure to comment on all the blogs for your chance to win a $15 gift certificate to So Suzy Stamps or a free, one month subscription to El Atelier de Stampartpapel. You have until midnight on Sunday, February 22nd to leave a comment and the winners will be announced at 12 noon on Monday, February 23rd over at the So Suzy Stamps blog.

All right, now what's a party without cupcakes?!?

Oh yeah, cupcake shaker card!! I went classy with this one adding in all that gold. I used chocolate brown cardstock for the card base and top layer here, making me dream of chocolate cupcakes...the green background paper is from the MME Market Street 6x6 pad and is a beautiful ombre pattern. Yes, the green made me think of mint, so chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I'm so hungry right now.

Moving on - I stamped the Medium Cupcake Swirl on my ombre paper (cut to 4"x5.25") with VersaMark ink, then heat embossed it using the Wow! Ultra High Rich Gold Embossing powder. And let me just say, wow! It really turns out super puffy, almost like fabric paint puffy for a really bold statement.

Quick tip on the embossing powder - the granules are huge compared to standard embossing powder, and I heard that you need to heat it from below first before finishing off the melting process as usual. Planning ahead for this, I attached my paper to the card base first to give me a sturdier surface to work with. Worked like a charm!

Setting that aside, I grabbed my other piece of chocolate cardstock (measuring 4.25"x5.5") and ran it through my Big Kick using a Darice embossing folder to give the front some texture. I then cut down a piece of fun foam to about 4"x5.25" and a transparency to about 4"x4.5" (enough to cover the circle plus room for glue). Die cutting time! I chose a circle from my We R Memory Keepers Nesting Circle dies and sliced through the embossed cardstock and the fun foam. To decorate the outside, I used the same circle plus the very next size up and die cut a piece of gold foil paper to dress up the rim.

Quick plug for the nesting circles - they're amazing. I have every size I might possibly want from buying just one die set and they cut like a dream. So glad I bought them, and if you decide you need them please use my link above to do so. Thanks!

Assembly time! The final sandwich is ombre paper to card base for that half, foil circle, embossed paper, transparency, fun foam for the other half. Now it was time to add the sequins!

Colors used: 4mm Fresh Mint, 4mm Metallic Bronze, 4mm Metallic Gold, 4mm Sparkling Clear, and 6mm Espresso. I glued a few of the Espresso sequins right to the ombre paper so they'd always be there looking pretty, then sprinkled the rest inside. Using my finger, I spread Ranger Multi Matte glue all over the fun foam, lined it up with the card base, and mushed them together. Yes, mushed is a technical term. Once I got it exactly where I wanted it I placed a book on top of it while it dried.

Then it was time to decorate the inside! Yes, I stamped the inside of a card; try not to panic and/or pass out from surprise.

Grabbing the VersaMark ink again, I stamped the Skinny Swirl Cupcake and the Ice Cream Sprinkles sentiment on the inside of the card, then heat embossed them with the Simon Says Stamp gold embossing powder. All done!

So, now that I have you dreaming of chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate chip ice cream and coffee (seriously, I'm dying over here!) I'm sending you off to Sharon's blog! Wait until you see what she's whipped up for the occasion. ;)

Oh, and don't forget Suzy's birthday present to all of you - free shipping on orders over $25 for the rest of February and if you place an order TODAY, the day of our fearless leader's birth, you get 20% off all future online orders for the rest of your life! Woot! Be sure to wish her happy birthday on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter.

Ok, I'm off to find a cupcake...have fun on the hop!

Cupcakes are Manly!

Hey there everyone - I'm blogging over at So Suzy Stamps today and sharing how I made this fabulous, manly cupcake card:

and a sweet matching gift bag, perfect for a gift card or super-manly pocket knife:

Go read all about it, and be sure to join in the January challenge with your So Suzy stamps!

Supplies:
Medium Cupcake Swirl stamp
Ice Cream Sprinkles stamp
Dark Chocolate Liquid Pearls
Lawn Fawn Goodie Bag die
Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangles die
Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy Cardstock
Simon Says Stamp Dark Chocolate Cardstock
Hero Arts Cornflower Blue ink
Hero Arts Cup O' Joe ink
Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
Ranger Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder
Remember if you go shopping at a2z Scrapbooking to use code JENNIFER15 for 15% off your purchase of $25 or more!
Ranger Distress Stain - Walnut
VersaMark Ink
Spellbinders S4-124 Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circles, Large
Please note; some links are affiliate links that simply mean if you purchase the item using them, I get a small monetary return. Seeing as those links help pay for giveaways and the like, I greatly appreciate you using them!

I am linking up to:
CASology Week 131 - Birthday
Simon Wednesday Challenge blog - Anything Goes
The Male Room - Shades of Blue

Happy Crafting!

Cupcake Gift Tags

Happy Saturday everyone! I was feeling creative this week and decided to enter Pink by Design's Birthday Challenge. I thought I would share these adorable cupcake gift tags I made up:

Kindly note the yummy glitter 'sprinkles'

I made these up with kraft paper tags I found on clearance at...sheesh...Michaels, Joann's, one of those stores. Some simple stamping with my older-than-dirt cupcake stamp set (seriously; like the packaging disintegrated so I can't even tell who the manufacturer is anymore!) and coloring with my pencils and these babies were looking c-u-t-e! I inked up the edges with my Distress Ink and then added "sprinkles" with my Stickles. I then carefully put them to one side and let them dry for hours. Yes, I may have finally learned my lesson about how long it takes Stickles to dry...maybe...ok, probably not, but at least for now I have.

These little cuties will be listed in my shop soon, and in the meantime be sure to enter our Box o' Crafty Goodness giveaway!

I'm linking up here: PbD Birthday Challenge

Happy Crafting!

Lawnscaping Challenge #25: Birthday!

Now that I'm blogging again and the holiday rush is over, I've actually started (gasp!) reading blogs again. I know, it's craziness, but it had to happen eventually. I've followed Lawn Fawn's blog for over a year now but just recently discovered their Lawnscaping blog and challenges. Their current challenge is right up my alley so I decided to jump in and come up with a birthday card!

Here's their inspiration photo, in celebration of their birthday:

Now obviously they'd like it if I used Lawn Fawn stamps for the challenge, but it's actually not a prerequisite. Good thing, too, as it turns out all I have are Christmas stamps and Get Well stamps from Lawn Fawn! Eep! (Their new breakfast set is totally on my 'must have' list, though).

So, what did I make? Take a look:

And then on the inside:

Cute, right? Who doesn't love yummy cupcakes on their birthday, especially chocolate ones.

How I made it:

• ivory linen cardstock base (paperandmore.com), cut to a folded size of 4.25"x5.5"
• chocolate toile paper (Recollections, Michael's store brand) cut to 4"x5.25"
• chocolate cardstock (from my stash), cut to 3.5"x4.75"
• pink cardstock (from my stash), cut to fit the stamp...about 1"x2"
• white cardstock (seriously, you should see how much paper I own)
• birthday stamp set (from my stash)
• chocolate ribbon (stash again), about 4"
• StazOn Java Bean & True Black ink
• Versamark Plumeria chalk ink
• watercolor pencils
• glitter glue
• hole punch
• cutter
• scissors
• adhesive
• Zots 3D dots

I started by stamping the cupcakes onto the white cardstock using the True Black ink. Then I started 'decorating' my cupcakes with the colored pencils. You could probably use Copics as well, but I haven't been able to budget them into my 'habit' yet. Carefully cut them out leaving a little bit of a white edge and set aside.

Ink the edges of the chocolate toile paper with the Java Bean and attach to the ivory card base. Next comes the inked chocolate cardstock. Stamp the sentiment onto your pink cardstock, punch a hole for the ribbon, then ink the edges. (Don't do what I did and ink the edges before punching the hole...you wind up with Java Bean fingers!) Feed a bit of ribbon thru the hole and knot it, trimming the ends to make them uniform and cute. Attach to the bottom corner with the 3D Zots to pop it off the card. Now for the cupcakes - attach them with the 3D Zots as well, then add 'confetti' with the glitter glue. After the glitter is dry, stamp the inside of the card with your sentiment. All done! A pretty, handmade birthday card for friends and family. You can easily make several of these at a time and keep them on hand for, well, birthdays!

Let me know if you make one yourself - I'd love to see how it came out.

Happy Crafting!

Happy Mother's Day!

So today I'm taking a day off from crafting to spend the day with my boys.

My ridiculously cute 8 month old, Kieran, presented me with a hand-drawn card and his first *two* teeth, as well as lots of smiles and kissies. He also had help from his Daddy in getting a suncatcher for me as well as getting me my morning coffee. :)

Breakfast we headed out for at a local diner called the Chuckwagon. It is a refurburished 1950s box car diner and the food is phenomenal. As an added Mother's Day treat, they were presenting all of the moms with a free half grapefruit with a cherry on top. :)  While there we also discovered that Kieran likes eggs as he kept demanding them off our plates!

After breakfast we headed for a local nursery, Hewitt's, so that I could pick out some flowers to put in my garden. As we pulled in, we were greeted by the double decker cupcake bus! Bettie's Cakes from Saratoga was there selling yummy cupcakes so of course we supported a fellow local business.

Now we're off to a friend's birthday party where Kieran will have two little boys to play with and I will be gifting one of my cupcake cards (soon available online).

Happy Mother's Day to all!